Page 42 of Devious Gambit

“No, thank you,” Det. Mathias answered. “I’ve got a report to write up.”

I listened to Mathias step cautiously down the wooden stairs that were damp and slippery from a frost earlier that morning. I knew what was going to happen next. As soon as Mathias was gone, Marjorie would interrogate me about her visit.

“What about you, sunshine?” Marjorie’s voice called out, “Why don’t you come inside for a hot drink and cookies. I got those pink marshmallows that you like.”

I stepped outside to the stair landing, so she could hear me and called out, “Sure. I’ll just put my boots on.”

Once inside her toasty warm house, I took a seat at the kitchen table. “I didn’t say anything about…” I trailed off. I hardly needed to spell it out.

“I know you won’t. Too much to lose, if you did.”

“The detective did ask how that bullet hole got in the side of my apartment.”

“And what did you tell her?” She dropped a piece of chocolate into the hot cocoa, gave it a stir and added three pink marshmallows.

“I said I didn’t know. But she could tell it was fresh.”

“Smart detective.”

“Did I do the right thing, Mrs. Dwight? Did I do the right thing?”

“Hell, girl, why do you insist on calling me Mrs. Dwight. It’s Marjorie and…I don’t rightly know. In this particular situation you did what was right at the time.”

“But…taking the body-”

“- The less I know the better, sunshine.”

She hadn’t asked me anything about that night, and we hadn’t even spoken about it until now. It was her suggestion to dump him in the lake, but she had no idea if we went through with it. She placed the hot chocolate in front of me and I took a sip, only to find the rich, warm flavor didn’t comfort me as much as I hoped.

Marjorie took a ginger cookie, dunked it into her hot chocolate, and bit the wet bit off. “I asked you before and I’m going to ask you again,” she started as she chewed the cookie, “can you trust those two friends of yours?”

“I trust Tris…” I paused mid sentence, because even though I trusted Tris, he had a conscious and was likely suffering greatly due to our decision. Lise, on the other hand was not an issue. As far as she was concerned, justice was served. End of story. “I don’t know anymore. It’s kind of changed our relationship.”

“Trauma will do that to the best of folk,” she said, wrapping her wrinkled fingers around the warm mug.

“What if the detective returns and asks again about the bullet hole?” I asked her, just to get our stories straight.

“How about you tell her the truth,” she advised, narrowing her eyes at me “That I shot at a pesky squirrel who was running up the side of the wall.” She chuckled, evilly. “Pity I missed.”

“Oh. And when did this occur?”

“When you were at school.” She smacked her lips together. “Don’t you worry your pretty little head over the details. If the detective asks again, send her over to me. I take full responsibility of that hole in my garage apartment wall. I’ll even show her the shotgun I used. Anything else beyond that,” her voice became steely and cold, “I know nothing about.”

SEVENTEEN

Jace

I was shooting hoops outside with a couple of the boys when a sleek creature walked by. She had long strides for a girl, always in a hurry to get somewhere or away from something. All anyone could see was the middle part of her face, because her curtain of hair shielded the rest. She was hugging books, unsurprisingly, and wearing red Chuck Taylors with black skinny jeans and an oversized navy blue hooded sweater.

A couple of guys eyed her up as they walked past her, but with her eyes low, she didn’t notice. Man, if a damn pterosaurs flew over her head, she wouldn’t notice until it was too late. Just for kicks, I wolf whistled, just to see if she’d look up. She didn’t. Instead, my whistle bounced off the walls of the gym and was picked up by the group of chicks nearby, watching us shoot hoop. Bad move. They swung around to see who I was wolf whistling and seemed puzzled when all they saw were a bunch of guys and a shy outcast. Gallagher was an outcast by choice.

I hadn’t seen or messaged her since Saturday night and seeing her now, reminded me that I’ve got a problem to solve. I’d been so busy with football training and completing assignments, I’d neglected my mission. Not that Cody was on my back about it. Hooking up with Rachel in the weekend put him in a good mood. They spent the entire weekend together, even went away and stayed in some fancy hotel. Being her part-time fuck buddy, suited both of them fine.

Josh passed the ball to me and I jumped up to lay one in the basket. Shot, nothing but net. I glanced back at Rhys again, hoping she saw me score, but she’d disappeared behind the sports admin building, heading in the direction of the university gardens.

I passed the ball back to Josh and had a strong urge to chase after Rhys. It was part cock-pull, part mission-pull. Yeah, I wanted to fuck her again. I told them I was out of the game, grabbed my bag and jogged after Rhys.

It’s interesting how your perception of people can change, because Gallagher now looked like sex on sticks to me. I slowed down my pace to watch her from behind. Her over-sized sweater came halfway down her ass, revealing the bottom of her butt cheeks that looked mighty fine in jeans, and a hot little gap between her upper thighs, where my face had been only a few nights ago.

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